If You Read One Thing…
From rock star drummer to adrenaline junkie and adventure seeker, Landward presenter Dougie Vipond has had a varied career
It has to be our exclusive interview with TV presenter and Deacon Blue drummer Dougie Vipond
DOUGIE VIPOND had not long started his television career when he was instructed to jump out of a perfectly good airplane. And then go back up and do it all over again.
The rock star drummer, who until then had been best known for his chart success with Deacon Blue, should have had some clue what lay ahead in his new career.
His current TV gig Landward, has certainly fulfilled his adrenaline potential. Mountain ascents and precarious ridges are just another day at the office for a man who’s taken his love of the outdoors to the maximum for 25 years.
The all-action presenter is back on our screens this autumn for another series of his much loved rural lifestyle series, and is once again making sure every angle – life endangering or not – is covered for his growing army of viewers.
Such is its popularity and importance to the Scottish national psyche, the show was the only non-news broadcast allowed to continue shooting during the strictest phases of lockdown.
In his 12th year working on the show, Elderslie-born Dougie has lost none of the excitement that inspired him to take the job in the first place.
And while the new run of episodes had to be adapted to cope with current conditions, he has promised to once again give as wide a range of coverage as he possibly can – even if it means hanging by a rope and clip while on camera.
“I love being out and about,” Dougie says. “I love the countryside and breathing fresh air and it was a real honour to be asked because it’s a really iconic programme for the BBC.
“During lockdown, we were given the broadcast critical status, that’s an amazing honour because people think we’re important enough to carry on what we were doing at that time.
“The rationale was that the news was so grim at that point, and the programme was to give people a bit of light relief from what’s happening in the world.
“For all that, we were dealing with issues like how Covid-19 was affecting fishing and farming, but we also made sure we got round the country, and we asked people to send in their own films they had made and that was lovely.
“It was also coming into springtime and to be part of documenting that surely brought hope, because it did feel quite bleak at that point in the year. We were quite honoured to be able to do that.”
The series sees father-of-three Dougie once again team up with his friend, neighbour and frequent collaborator, Nick Nairn. The Michelin-starred chef and TV personality not only joins him in the Landward van to explore produce and ingredients, but the pair also co-host an increasingly popular foodie show.
Their second series of The Great Food Guys for BBC Scotland saw them welcome star guests like
Jane Mccarry, Greg Mchugh and Sanjeev Kohli to their kitchen in Fettercairn, Aberdeenshire, to celebrate Scots cuisine and influences.
It was such a hit in the area that it was then shown across the whole country, with seasons one and two running consecutively on Saturday mornings, in the popular cookery slot.
The off-screen chemistry between Dougie and Nick is clear on camera and Dougie insists they have a great time no matter what they’re shooting.
“It’s basically all about celebrating the food and the producers. Landward started off so many years ago as a farming programme, so it’s important we keep that element, but we always do some cooking.
“I’m basically his lackey and I’m very happy to be that guy. He won a Michelin star in his 20s, he’s a man who really knows what he’s doing. His enthusiasm for Scottish food and produce is extraordinary.
“He’s still so passionate after all these years and I’ve had some amazing food experiences by being out and about with him, so I’m blessed to be in his company.”
“I mean, sometimes he’s a pain, but more often than not he’s really quite nice!”
And they’re hoping for another crack at The Great Food Guys format for a third series.
“We shot the second series the week before lockdown and we thought about the way we filmed it and how we can make it better and more like an as-live programme with the guests.
“The first series went network on Saturday mornings and they ran the second series straight after that, so we were on BBC One for 16 weeks in a row right after Saturday Kitchen and it was a real hit.
“Let’s hope we get a third series because we have lots of new ideas to make it even better.”
Dougie had first shown interest in presenting as his initial stint behind the drums for Deacon Blue was nearing its end. He did arts show NB for STV and then moved to all-action sports show Big Country, with co-presenter Jenni Falconer.
Their first job together was skydiving from a plane, which he loved, and that set the tone for his career, which went on to include The Adventure Show.
Other presenting highlights have included Sportscene and all kinds of BBC Scotland sporting gigs including presenting the coverage of the Commonwealth Games in 2014.
Dougie has worked hard to shape the kind of presenting he wanted to be involved in.
“When I was working in sport, I was trying to work out a way of doing an outdoors programme.
Before The Adventure Show, there wasn’t much more than football or rugby covered and as we know, sport in Scotland is so much bigger than that.
“I was always trying to get out and about, like doing sheepdog trials and when they also asked me to do Landward, they complemented each other very well.
“It’s been amazing. I remember nine years ago we were doing a piece on gathering pine cones and I think they chose the place to be particularly scary – hanging out over a gorge and I had to climb up.
“I was clipped in and safe, but I knew if I fell I was going to swing over this gorge. I was working really hard trying not to show the absolute fear of it.”
While his TV career took off, Deacon Blue split in 1994 after an eight year run of some of the UK’S most beloved pop anthems of the late 80s and huge international tours.
They reunited to work on a charity gig just five years later and found the magic was still there. Founding members Ricky Ross, Lorraine Mcintosh, James Prime and Dougie, alongside newer additions Gregor Philip and Lewis Gordon, are still recording and touring to great success today.
Original bass player Ewen Vernal had joined Capercaillie in 1994, while guitarist Graeme Kelling sadly died of pancreatic cancer in 2004.
With regular new album releases and tours of the UK and Europe, Deacon Blue are busier than ever, and the only complication is fitting in gigs around their other jobs such as Lorraine’s acting work, Ricky’s broadcasting and writing, and Dougie’s telly work.
“We just postponed a massive tour for this year, and we’d been planning that for 18 months.
“Getting all six of us in the room together at any one time is not easy. Lorraine will have had to turn down acting jobs because she was going on tour and there are presenting jobs I’ve not done because I’ve been in the band, but BBC Scotland have been brilliant over the years to let me do all the other stuff.
“I’m 53 and I just feel so lucky that at this age people still want to come and see us play. We didn’t think we’d still be doing this after all these years.”
The reformed band are also far from a nostalgic cabaret act.
While their massively popular tours still feature the bangers of old, they are always working hard to write and record new material. Their newest album City of Love was number four in the UK album charts and number one in the Scottish charts.
And while he loved doing Landward during lockdown, he does regret not getting the chance to break in his new record on stage during their postponed tour.
“One of the most frustrating things about lockdown was that we were really looking forward to getting City of Love out there. We have postponed until next year so it’ll be great to play the songs when we get back out touring.
“When you tour every few years, you have to keep your playing up to standard, I have to make sure I’m good enough and fit enough, so that when we go into the rehearsal room, you know what to do.
“I just love doing the tours. I’m a very lucky man to be doing lots of things that I completely adore.”
“Getting all six of us in the room together at any one time is not easy”
You can watch Landward on the BBC Scotland channel on Thursdays at 8pm, on BBC One Scotland on Fridays at 7.30pm and on the BBC iplayer.